Education Research
Check out this guide for tips on doing education research, including tips on using the online catalog to find books and reference materials. If you're not sure what a literature review looks like, there's a good example here. In addition, the PowerPoint presentation used in our library session can be found here.
1. Pick Topic & Get Background Information
These sources can help you identify a topic for your research. They can provide an overview of a specific issue and suggest other materials which might be useful for your research.
- International Encyclopedia of Education (2nd ed.); REFERENCE LB15 .I569 1994
- Encyclopedia of Education (2nd ed.), 2003; REFERENCE LB15 .E47 2003
- Encyclopedia of Educational Research; REFERENCE LB15 .48 1992
- Encyclopedia of American Education (2nd ed.), 2001; REFERENCE LB17 .U54 2001
- Encyclopedia of Special Education : a Reference for the Education of the Handicapped and Other Exceptional Children and Adults; REFERENCE LC4007 .E53 2000
2. Use Books to Find Detailed Information
- McIntyre Library Online Catalog (Voyager): Identify books by topic, title or author; identify journals and magazines owned by the Library. To find journal articles on your topic, use the databases listed in the section below. Remember to cross-search subject headings as you find appropriate materials.
- UW System Libraries (Universal Borrowing): Universal Borrowing (UB) is a free service that allows UWEC students, faculty and staff to borrow circulating materials from any other UW System library. UB is fast -- most items arrive in 2-4 days. For more information, read this guide.
- MORE Library Consortium: MORE is a consortium of libraries in Western Wisconsin sharing resources totaling more than a million items. You can search the online catalog to find materials or find additional information at any of the MORE member libraries.
3. Find Education Articles and Journals for Current Information
The library provides you with access to several databases specific to the field of education. General databases, such as Academic Search Premier may also prove useful, as will those not specific to education. Each database uses its own subject terms, so the keywords that create a successful search in one database may not work in another database. Be ready with synonyms and use the database thesaurus to check your terms for the most accurate, successful searches.
- Education Full-Text: Education Full Text brings you comprehensive coverage of an international range of English-language periodicals, monographs and yearbooks. Full text of articles cover to cover, from hundreds of journals, make this a great source for research.
Education Research Complete:We are currently offering a trail of this EBSCO database which offers the world's largest and most complete collection of full text education journals. The database covers areas of curriculum instruction as well as administration, policy, funding, and related social issues, provides indexing and abstracts for more than 1,730 journals and contains full text for nearly 830 journals. If you use this database and would like to recommend that we purchase it, email me!
- ERIC (EBSCO): ERIC contains indexes and abstracts from education and education-related journals and from professional papers, reports, and documents. Journal articles have an “EJ number” and documents have an "ED number.”
- Academic Search Elite: Academic Search Elite, an EBSCO database, is a general academic index that indexes almost 3,000 magazines and journals from every academic discipline and provides the full-text of more than 1,200.This is also an EBSCO product, so looks very similar to ERIC, but it searches different journals and uses different subject headings. These subject heading can be explored in the thesaurus, which works the same as in ERIC.
- ComDisDome: A Communication Science and Disorders database. May be a good choice if you're doing a special education related topic. This database is a little harder to use and understand, so if you need help, just let me know!
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